Inflexible pledges don't serve constituents

Sunday

Sep 30, 2012 at 12:01 AMSep 30, 2012 at 11:04 AM

One of the reasons I miss George Voinovich in the public arena is because he was never afraid to tell demagogues where to go - and it's not a place on Google Maps. As governor in the 1990s, Voinovich was struggling to balance the state budget, contemplating a tax increase along with spending cuts.

One of the reasons I miss George Voinovich in the public arena is because he was never afraid to tell demagogues where to go — and it’s not a place on Google Maps.

As governor in the 1990s, Voinovich was struggling to balance the state budget, contemplating a tax increase along with spending cuts.

Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform, has found fame and fortune by demonizing elected officials who won’t sign his no-tax-increase pledge. He decided that bullying Voinovich was a good idea and traveled from Washington to Columbus to demand that the governor sign a pledge to require a 60 percent vote of the legislature to raise taxes.

Recalling that time in an interview last March, Voinovich said: “I told Grover Norquist to go jump in the lake. I actually told him something else, but you can’t print that.”

Later, when Voinovich became a U.S. senator and Norquist was strong-arming members of Congress to sign his no-tax-increase pledge, Voinovich said, “I was the first one to get up on the floor of the Senate and say that anybody who signs that pledge is violating their oath of office.”

Why, Voinovich wondered, would an elected official sign a promise that would foreclose options to serve constituents? Sometimes a tax increase is necessary to maintain essential services and a good quality of life for a community.

The way Voinovich saw it, the more options available to address a problem, the better. But now, at a time when thoughtful and pragmatic public policy solutions are desperately needed, too many politicians lack the courage to stand up to the demagogues and ideologues who threaten retribution against anyone who dares defy their narrow agendas.

The interview with Voinovich came to mind last week during a news conference held by Josh Mandel, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate. Outlining his plan to “clean up Washington,” Mandel made a pledge that wrought a troubling question: Why is experience no longer valued in politics?

Across the spectrum of human endeavors, experience is prized. Yet in politics, experience is derided as a liability. Hence, Mandel probably correctly perceived that voters would like his call for limiting terms for members of Congress to 12 years — six two-year terms for representatives and two six-year terms for senators.

“If we’re tired of Washington and want to change the way it works, we need to change the people we send there,” according to Mandel. “Term limits will do that.”

If Congress does not approve a constitutional amendment for states to ratify to impose term limits, Mandel pledged that he would impose term limits on himself if he is elected on Nov. 6. But then, Mandel also promised to serve a full four-year term as state treasurer. He began running for the Senate about three months after becoming treasurer in January 2011.

This time, Mandel insisted, he really means it: “After two terms, the people of Ohio won’t have to make a decision about whether to hire or fire me, because I will leave there on my own.”

Won’t we feel cheated, then, if Mandel wins and becomes the senator we hope he will be? Just as he is acquiring the experience to be effective in the Senate, he will deny us the opportunity to send him back.

Mandel’s opponent, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, made the same pledge to limit himself to 12 years in Congress when he first ran in 1992. Now, after 14 years in the U.S. House and nearly six in the Senate, Brown said last week that he doesn’t remember making that promise, although there are newspaper stories to prove it. Not surprisingly, Brown has come to the view that term limits “ won’t fix Washington.”

Here’s a pledge every voter should make: Don’t elect anyone who signs pledges; the oath of office to serve you to the best of his or her ability is all that’s necessary.

And if you believe 12 years is enough in Congress, then quit your job after 12 years. The experience is probably one you won’t repeat.

Joe Hallett is senior editor at The Dispatch.

jhallett@dispatch.com

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